14 weeks out, day 2, high bar squats and bench presses

The Y wasn't very busy tonight but there were enough globo gym goers that it made me wonder about something. I read a lot of stuff on the internet that makes me shake my head, not because it's stupid (although a fair bit of it is) but because many of the ideas shared would've died a natural death in the pre-internet days. In the old days before the internet, some of the weird ideas that permeate today's internet would've never been spread. They would've started and ended with the guy that percolated the thought.

One thing I read, mostly by beginners, is that they don't want to use weightlifting shoes or belts or wraps or straps or anything that is used to assist the strength building process. This despite the fact that they insist on using barbells and power racks. At least the guys that lift rocks and tree trunks and odd shaped implements got that part consistent. While I get what they're trying to do, philosophically, it doesn't make much sense. I can only think of two times where I've actually used 'weight room' strength in a real world situation. I can only assume the reason the 'naturalistic' lifters eschew standard weight training gear is because they think they might someday need to demonstrate weight room strength away from a weight room.

Unfortunately, in reality, very few things one would have to lift are shaped as conveniently as a weight loaded barbell. The two times I used my weight room strength "in real life" were both about 25 years ago. Both involved moving a car by lifting it from the rear bumper. Once because the offending car was blocking entrance to the parking pad at my apartment and once because I was trying to impress a girl (really). I actually forgot that second instance but was reminded of it by that girl many years later so I guess it worked. I also lifted cars a few other times to prove I could do it but it wasn't out of necessity (or perceived necessity).

25 years later and the building still looks the same

The reason I haven't done it since is because metal bumpers went away and now there's nothing to hold onto except a thin plastic cover. The only cars I could lift were cars that had metal bumpers that were easy to grip. They also had to be front wheel drive (so the back end was much lighter).

the VW Rabbit was easy to lift from the rear

I've always worked desk jobs and my hobbies don't include landscaping or building houses so I just haven't had occasion to use any of my weight room work outside the weight room. Maybe the guys on the internet have jobs that involve a high degree of physical labour, I dunno, it just hasn't been that useful outside the gym or off the platform for me.

So anyways, I contemplated all that while I watched a guy using two bars to do some horrific shoulder press, power clean super set. Amazingly, the bar loaded for the power cleans was lighter than the bar used for shoulder presses. I give up trying to figure out what some people are trying to do.

I tried to purge that vision of mediocrity out of my mind while I warmed up my high bar squats. Tonight I increased my work weight to 385 for sets of 5. I ended up doing a total of 30 work reps at an average intensity of 72%. Bench presses are still coming around slowly and have suffered with my weight loss. I still expect it to come back some but right now it's a struggle. I did a total of 33 work reps at an average intensity of 74%. The one positive is that my shoulders feel good and the workload is being tolerated well.

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